Tuesday, September 30, 2014

This is a short update on the proceedings of Episode-340 | September 29 2014 of Jodha Akbar, where we are watching the conspiracy to kill the twins of Jodha and Akbar.1.
Today, a character named Mirza Qasim was introduced in the show. He
was the son of Kamran, brother of Humayun. He was a cunning rival of
Akbar, just similar to Kamran for Humayun. He was arrested by Tardi Beg, the governor of Delhi in 1555/56 and
handed over to Akbar.

These^ facts are from the English tranlation of Akbarnama, Vol.1, Pg-365, Calcutta Edition-1878, ed. by Rahim.

At present, it
is not known to me, if he was released later by Akbar. I am finding more on this. Later, after sensing a possible 'conspiracy' , he was "executed quite brutally in private" on orders of Akbar in
1565 in the Fort of Gwalior. Interestingly, none of Akbar's chroniclers shed light on this fact/reasons involved in this "private execution". This makes the event quite interesting. Note that Internet websites mention his date of execution in 1561, which is wrong.

These^ facts are from Smith's Akbar(1917), Page-28.

2.As far as involvement of Sharif-ud-din is concerned in conspiracy, my readings say he will runaway and rebel later. Historically, he survived for a longer time, so his end is not near anytime soon.

3. This point is about the twins' death. I have drawn my sources in this regard from many places. I am still searching more on this to conclude the actual proceedings in minute details.First, i would like to remind you all about my earlier post on twins of Mariam-Uz-Zamani and Akbar from Akbarnama. Readers should go through the post and EACH comment/discussions below this post on the page, to understand the meaning of the words. Here it is > The Twins of Mariam-Uz-Zamani and Akbar | An Assessment

These were the conclusions - a. The twins sacrificed their lives for their father.b. The twins sacrificed their lives for the prestige of their father.c. The twins sacrificed their lives for the prestige of the Royal Household.d. The twins death was eclipsed by dramatic events.e. Their life/death was part of a 'gamble'.f. The manner in which twins died was not "perfectly" natural.g. The language of Abu'l Fazl hinted aggression and violent nature, preceding their death.h. Sacrificing life for prestige of their father means that someone from the immediate family was involved in this, hence the name of the person was not exposed by Abu'l Fazl, who was the "official chronicler" of Akbar.Above facts were deductions from Akbarnama. Now, according to my information, which has been shared in the last fewdays - This track would consist of 4 people - A maid, Ruqayya, Akbar and Jodha. The maid would be a pawn of Ruqayya, and will be used in a sort of conspiracy aimed at Jodha. But she will not be successful. Akbar gets miffed with Ruqayya after this incident, and she would cease to be a part of his life for significant amount of time. Details will be confirmed IF verification for the same is obtained because the source who provided this information underwent a research on Akbar a decade back as a part of her thesis. I have requested for the details, and will post it when i receive the same. So, put this information on hold till then.

It is not easy to filter out the information from accounts, as here the matter points to involvement/association of a close family member of the Emperor. Though, 2 things are clear from Abu'l Fazl's writings:a. The death of twins was eclipsed by some dramatic events, of violent/aggressive nature, attributing their lives to be part of a 'gamble'..b. There was involvement of someone close to the Emperor. Hence, the end of the lives of the twins was compared to a sacrifice FOR their father('s prestige), as the end of their lives ALSO buried a "black chapter" in Akbar's era..

Views on this track (Do not mix this with the above history part. Now we are talking about the REEL part.) The introduction of Mirza Qasim is perplexing for many of the viewers. Though, for me also it is a matter of confusion, so as to why he has been introduced by the makers. I have limited knowledge, at the moment, about him. The twins died roughly in early November 1564 . The execution of Mirza Kasim happened next year.

There was involvement of a maid. It seems the wife of Mirza has been roped in to play that part.

This track has mixed bits of history with the required spice of telly shows..!!I
hope this much historical information provides sufficient ammo to the
readers, for taking the discussion on this track further.

45 comments:

Thank you Abhay for this interesting and valuable input . I am now thinking of what both Jalal and Jodha might have undergone emotionally at the death of their twins . In reality both of them were just twenty years old themselves , when this tragedy struck . Now I'm assured that she will definitely get punished however I am curious to see EK's version of punishment that Jalal will mete Rukaiyya . I use to think that Rukaiyya's character was EK 's version of a vampish queen , but it looks like even in reality , she was nasty .

Thanks for the info Abhay. Your inputs always adds an interesting dimension to the ongoing episodes.I'm surprised to see how much conspiracies Akbar went through and yet had the strength to endure all this and provide a stable and peaceful empire.

A king becomes a great king and emperor only when he is able to withstand great odds and still run a stable, peaceful and progressive kingdom. This holds true for any great king, be it Akbar or Ashoka. :)

Hey, Thanks, Abhay! Didn't expect a historical update from you so soon :)

Coming to the conspiracy.

The word gamble reminds me of what I am reading about the present track.

It appears that Ruqaiyya tries to drug Jodha slowly over a period of time so that she is unable to look after Hasan properly. However Jalal discovers this and then "he takes a huge gamble". He hands over Hasan also to Ruqaiyya, telling her that Jodha is sick.

Now this will be a very big risk, if it is shown. Jalal and Jodha already suspect foul play and then to put their babies in Ruqaiyya's care is an extremely dangerous stunt.They hope to and they succeed in catching Zeenat and through her Ruqaiyya.

Unfortunately, they are not able to save the babies who die of poisoning. So the babies sacrificed their lives so that their father's enemy could be discovered and punished. In other words, they did "fling" their lives "for their father".

Now this is all still speculation, of course. Let's see how the show actually proceeds in this track.

Abhay, the point is that the woman is not a maid here, but Jalal's own sister-in-law and Qasim's wife. She is not a pawn in Ruqaiyya's hands yet. If at all, she appears to be playing a bigger hand here, while Ruqaiyya is shown to be totally unaware of her intentions.

So far at least, the CVs are showing as if Ruqaiyya is all innocent and is ONLY concerned about bringing up Hussein with the help of a dai. The twins death may be ascribed to Qasim and his wife or to Maham's curse and Ruqaiyya let off.

Ruqaiyya most likely will not dare to conspire with her sister-in-law to hurt Hasan. She may at most try to drug Jodha to incapacitate her initially and attack her later in anger, if Hussein is taken from her and given back to Jodha.

So at most, she will be accused of only trying to vie for the title of MUZ or becoming emotionally unstable when Hussein is taken away from her. The actual allegation of trying to kill the twins may not be ascribed to her.

I know you have dug deep into rare manuscripts and given ^^^ info about Ruqaiyya's punishment. But somehow I am not getting the confidence that she will actually be punished. The CVs had whitewashed all the sins of Mahamanga too and painted her as heart-broken woman who had been swayed by her son's ambitions and insecurities to go against the emperor. None of her sins has been brought to light yet and no one has condemned her. This makes me fearful that a similar outcome may be reserved for Ruqaiyya also. At most, Jalal may be shown to withdraw from her. The harem ladies are still very much with her, in spite of her atrocious behavior with Jodha, the natural mother of Hussein. :(

Personally, going by what you say about Mirza Qasim's execution soon after the twins' death, the CVs may ascribe their death to him and have him punished instead of Ruqaiyya.

Historically, it may be possible that a maid was used to harm the twins' out of jealousy and Ruqaiyya discovered and punished. But because the conspiracy involved the chief queen, it was hushed up.

If this had been the case, how did Akbar agree to hand over baby Khurram to Ruqaiyya? Had Ruqaiyya changed a bit by then? Though she seems to have remained ambitious till the end. No doubt, it must have been her machinations that ultimately made Khurram the next emperor. Even though, Nur Jahan tried to appoint Khusrau as the next emperor, but failed to convince him and had to agree to Khurram (who was not exactly her favorite).

Sorry for blabbering. My point is only that Ruqaiyya never lost her ambitious nature and political manipulations to stay at the helm of power all through her life. How could such a woman be given a child for rearing? Esp, completely to the point that the child was not allowed to meet its mother also. Makes no sense to me.

Radhika I'm not sure from the historical aspect , But i do feel Jalal's greatest weakness is he seems to be in some sort of denial mode when it comes to his closest of relatives and always want to believe in the best of them We saw the same with maham ,until the very last he was always giving her chance to redeem herself . I think the same with ruq too. After a period of time he might have thought she is changed and want to give her a chance .But the way Quram was raised shows she never truly changed and she is another maham only., I do empathize with him as its always hard to bear the betrayal of loved ones and a part in us always wants to believe the best in them ,but equally sad that if they were given the just punishment at the right time they would never have dared to do all this.

Abhay, till now I was under the impression that Ruqaiyya would try to kill Hassan, to become MUZ herself. But now with the entry of Qasim, the scene is changed.It is also possible, history-geek, that the twins die even before Ruqs executing her evil plans, as I said earlier, 2 different plots may get mixed up.I hv read that Akbar killed his cousin bro, in prison.May be he is Mirza Qasim, And now the reason becomes clear to me.But Abhay, why so much delay? Why a year after?Frm the precap, It seems Jaweda has caught her red handed,but I am sure she will cleverly make some excuses.Radhika, ur theory abt gamble is interesing. n I think that cud be the only possible theory fr the word gamble. But that seems to be far fetched n long duration,( that doesn't tally with our CVs rushing the track) Similarly, I also don't think Ruqs will be punished in the seial.But I am happy to know in reality, she was punisned.But the present track doesn't show her as the murderer.:( History -geek,n his frnds pl. tell us thet she was punished, by way of isolation in the history.h-(

No, my theory is not far-fetched or of long duration. :) I picked it from what I have read about the track so far.

Historically, Ruqaiyya was apparently excluded from Akbar's life for 7 years.

Regarding what you have mentioned about mix-up of plots. Right now, there is one sub-plot in which Ruqaiyya wants the MUZ title by showing Jodha as a negligent mother and by creating a rift between Jalal and Jodha. The second sub-plot is of Mirza Qasim and his wife trying to take revenge on Jalal by killing his babies. These two plots overlap at present. Let's see if they run parallel to each other or become one at some point. :)

The third sub-plot involving SD and his father who are conspiring to overthrow and possibly kill Jalal is running separately right now. :)

Thank u Radhka, fr that update.If ruqs has been isolated fr 7 yrs in the history, then this must be the apt cause fr that i.e. kids death.By far fetched I really mean the slow poisoning will take months where as the kids did not live fr that much period .I think Abu'l Fazl's words, fr the sake of father, if we take it as prestige of father, may be he is hinting at the cospiracy by their own mothers,i.e Ruquaiyya, n in a way Zeenat also, heinous acts, which if known to the world, may prove black spot on Mughal sultanat.Seriously, the serial is becoming more thrilling day by day, n I love this platform, where there is free exchange of views.:)

thank u thank u thank u a lot Abhay...much appreciated..g-)matlab whatever Ekta is showing r quite true!! indeed twins died out of a conspiracy not due to illness! :-O and Ruqaiyya was very much involved in all this like the show.. not to kill the babies but to demean Jodha in Jalal's eyes? :-Oaccha u were saying on IF Qasim's death was horrendous...can u give us a brief?

This execution was "private" and this has been described as the incident which set an example for Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb in future..

Private "executions" involves these acts -- a. Beheading,b. Ordering to person be cut down into "pieces".

You can see the extremeness of punishment involved. Such executions were not carried by the Emperor himself, but by "specially" recruited persons for this job..!!!!!.. These chambers were normally located underground..

History-geek, when I had read that Akbar had got his cousin killed, I was thinking he did it fr throne. I also had this impression that Akbar was not that a good king which he seemed to be.But again, people form impression without understanding the background, the haalat This only goes to prove that u shud not be judgemental.History has much more burried under it than it seems on the surface.:-o

Qasim may or may not have been killed in relation to the twins' deaths. Abhay says that this is not well-documented, just like it's not clearly documented how the twins died exactly and who was responsible for their death. All these conspiracies were hatched by very close associates and often, hushed up.

Only thing is that Qasim was privately executed in the Fort of Gwalior in 1565 in a most horrendous manner. The why is not known but it must have been something really nasty. Just as it's not known what exactly Ruqaiyya did but she must have done something really horrid to be excluded from Akbar's life for a few years.

Btw, Zeenat is not playing the part of a maid in the show. A nursing mother is not a maid. Often, even women of good background acted as nursing mothers and caretakers for children of other higher ranking women. :) JiJiAnga was also a foster mother to Akbar.

yeah...much digging is required I guess on this issue..and I feel if Ekta is showing this that means her team has researched and have the facts with them..lets see why Qasim gets punishment.by maid I meant historically a maid was a part of it...CVs using Zeenat instead of maid...I didnt mean maid=nursing mother :)

Thanks Abhay, so child sacrificed their life, Sad, but one ques coming in my mind, unconciousness of Jalal+Igo satisfing, +Power gaining desire of Ruk, totally, Harming Kids, Kids are using, by cunning peoples For their, stupid desires, such a cheap persons, they should sure punish Much Hard. Ameen.

, Jalal own cheated by, Maham, Hamauan +kamran realtion was not good, so at sudden why beliveing Kassim, +zeenath, :;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;saying, Ruk zenath, will brought up one child.so which type of this unconciousness, which not wake ups.?

, Sometime we know in front which is happening wrong, but we not speak, Why, suppose, child was not given Ruk, Other child faces this problem, so Akdha speaks, So speaking is necessary this time.Written pharman hee agree, but, ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Anyone pharman is not bigger then child life.

history-geek,i am enjoying this.ruqaiya punishment for 7 years is coming near.it will be a big incident of akbar life.akbar was surrounded by dhokebaaz people.but he had more well-wishers.he rose above every hard time.it disheartens me to see his own people and wife doing wrong to him.thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing some valuable & researched info Abhay :)........I am trying to draw a square joining four dots --- Mirza Kasim brutally executed in 1565 in private and the reasons not known, the babies died most probably unnaturally in November 1564, Rukaiya out of Akbar's life for a few years and Abul Fazl's 'flung' with respect to babies death :-?....

Thank you so much abhay for this hard work and info .i did back and forth with my friend on this matter ,she told me but no body got caught so I told her may be it did not came out ,it was pushed under the royal rugs and boy I was right about it . The only line kept bugging me was their sacrifice for their father ,I really feel bad for jodha and Akbar to loose your babies in this manner is heart wrenching, thank god they had each other to lean on .

Pallavi,The Real Akbar-HK found solace in each other after this tragedy. But Ekta's Akbar and Jodha went totally against history in this context. They should have been each other pillar of support, but it did not happen in the show. Now, at present, this show is on its downfall. : (

Yes, I have heard about this but not read it myself. From what I have heard, the reasons are not clear but may be something she did upset Akbar much. I heard that Harka Bai / MUZ was responsible for the reconciliation between Akbar and Ruqaiyya Begum later.

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